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Blizzard To Stamp Out Hero Stacking In Overwatch’s Competitive Mode

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Blizzard has confirmed in an extensive post on their Battle.net forums that a future update to Overwatch‘s Competitive mode will no longer allow players to be in teams consisting of more than one of any hero.

Explaining the thought process behind the decision, director Jeff Kaplan said that both he and the development team agreed that the ability to engage in so-called ‘hero stacking’ had become “detrimental” to the overall experiences players are having with the shooter, and that certain individuals were using it to intentionally “frustrate their opponents.”

We feel that hero stacking is becoming detrimental and leading to some not-so-great player experiences. For example, we’ve seen organized teams on Assault and Hybrid maps use hero stacking to overtake the first point before the defense has a chance to counter.

We’ve also seen players use specific stacked compositions just to frustrate their opponents or cause indefinite delays in overtime among other strategies. While this kind of thing is certainly possible in any mode, the higher stakes of Competitive Play means these kinds of tactics were popping up more often than anyone would like.

Although Kaplan is aware that hero stacking is a problem that can affect all game modes, he confirms that, due to the “more relaxed” nature of Quick Play mode, the studio won’t be issuing the same restrictions to it, preferring instead to let it be a more casual-friendly experience.

The changes to Competitive mode are currently live on Overwatch‘s Public Test Realm and, assuming the reception is positive, Blizzard says they’ll roll out the changes to the live game in a future patch.